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Ever since 3rd grade, when a bee climbed into my ear with a deafening buzz, I've been fearful of stinging insects. So it was part anthropological interest and part facing fear that I tracked down honey hunters in the jungles of Nepal and surrounded myself with a swarm of the world's largest honeybee. Armed with bamboo tools, hunters descend rickety ladders with the bare minimum of protection to fetch hives the size of a curled-up child. Like a black blizzard, bees stormed though the cloudy smoke

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As children, we are all told to avoid bees and wasps and that they can sting. This is a great subject matter that touches us all. Well done, for tackling that. The soft subtle colours that integrate and blend nicely with the clouds of smoke, generate such a harmonious feel to the frame. It’s beautiful. Then of course, on closer inspection and in stark contrast you see all the bees. Great photograph.